There are control surface and high-lift device, the primary control surface are the basic control surface that a plane needs. The high lift-device, the plane not necessarily need it, although they have this name they increasi the lift and the drag by increasing the angle of attack, so it makes the plane has more lift and fly slow. I'll explain each one for you.
The primary are ailerons, elevator and rudder. The basic high-lift device are flaps, slats and slots.

Primary:

- Ailerons: it is responsable for bank the plane(the moviment that the plane do around the longitudinal axis), usualy in air model, it is in the trailling edge, from tip to the root of the wing, unless the plane have flaps. For fast planes, like pylon racer, the ailerons are internal, it means they are from the root of the wing till the middle of it, always in the trailling edge, and some planes don't have it, they use the yaw motion to makes the turns, usually those planes has a high dihedral angle or polyhedral wing(like the FT Old Fogey and Old Speedster). To see if it's set correct, the side that you want to turn should go up, and the other side should go down.

- Elevator: It's located in the back of the plane and it's responsable for the pitch of the plane, if you push the stick the elevator should go up, and the plane point it nose up, if you pull the stick, than the elevator goes down and the nose of the plane point down. It's responsable for the moviment around the transversal axis. It doesn't mean that the plane goes up or down, it's possible to do a downward flight with nose up, because when the nose goes up, the lift is increase so the drag, in real planes the elevator influence more the speed than the altitude. What I want to say is that you need the thrust of the engine or speed to make the plane goes up.

- Rudder: It's responsable for the yaw moviment, it means the moviment of the plane around the vertical axis. If you moves the stick for the right it should moviment for the right and yaw the plane for the right, if you moves the stick to left is the opposite. Like ailerons some planes don't have it because it's not needed, like fast planes.

High-Lift Device:

- Flaps: it's the most comum high-lift device in airmodels, you can control it, they are used usually for landing beacause it reduces the speed without decrease the lift, sometimes for take-off but it doesn't need in airmodels due to the high thrust engines. It's located in the trailing edge of the wing, from the root til the middle of the wing(if you use the flaperon conf, than the aileron could move like a flap).

- Slots: it's a "gap" in the leading edge of the wing that goes from under of the wing to the top of it, they are fixed and you can't control, they start to function when you are at high angle of attack, the "gap" acelerate the air the flows by using the Bernoulli's principle and makes the a laminar flux of air in the top wing so the wing don't stall at high angle of attack.

- Slats: it's the same as Slots, but it's retractable, usualy they work with a spring and wind pressure, when the angle of attack rise, the air pressure goes down and the spring can expand, open the "gap" and avoid the stall, when the aircraft/airmodel is stopped on the ground the automatic slat will be open. When the airmodel is flying than the airpressure compress the spring closing the "gap".

After all these explanation what I want to say to you is: less is better! These means that you don't need some devices in the airmodels, especially in trainers. More devices means more thing to possible fail, ask for anyone that have retract landing gear in his/him model.

About the wing I belive that the Flite Test Team talk about it in the build video, probably you'll need two servos for the ailerons and wire extension, to conect than to the receiver, usually a Y extension for the ailerons, if you configure it as flaperon than you don't need the Y extension, you'll need to plug one servo in the aileron channel and the other in the flap channel, than you'll need to configure the flaperon in the radio. If you install ailerons and flaps separete than you need two servos for flaps(I imagine) and you'll need to reverse one servo by desoldering and soldering, and two servos for the ailerons, tow Y extension, one extension you conect to the aileron chanel and the ailerons servo, the other one you conect to the flaps servos and the flap channel on receiver.

Active member

also check out the begginers series on the home page here: http://flitetest.com/beginner-series
lots of info for getting the plane in the air ...
as a begginer i would stick with just ailerons ,as Bruno said less to go wrong ...and you can always add flaps and things later on ..
welcome to the addiction ....Dave.

Junior Member

Welcome PAUL! This is a great flying plane and only ailerons are needed. You mention help in connecting the wings. I assume you mean the 2 servos, as they need to be connected in parallel using a Y connector. This will allow a single connection on your receiver on the aileron channel slot. The servos should be installed so they are backwards from each other, that is, one drops while the other rises. The Y connector runs them in parallel so the movements are mirrored. Therefore, when you mount them you will notice that each is installed so their movements are coordinated but opposite of each other. Let us know if you have more questions!

I did add flaps to my Storch for fun, but the slow speed and great lift by design make this airplane a fun and easy flyer. you shouldn't need any mixing, just follow the build video.

Junior Member

Paul,feel free to reread the areford reply, as a beginner is good to know the things we need in short words instead of long writing than some times make you more confused, I hope all the replies help you to fly the torch.